Meet the winner of Chichester’s first-ever poetry slam

SussexWorld

Ayana Playle, Worthing-based winner of Chichester’s first-ever poetry slam, believes humour was key to her success.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Greek

00:03arts at a town in Sussex newspapers. Lovely today to

00:06speak to Iona Plea. Now, Iona, you won. You are Chichester's

00:11first ever Poetry Slam competition winner. Now, how

00:15did that go? How did you win? Did you have a good feeling?

00:19I had an amazing time at the Tongue Tied Chichester Poetry

00:23Slam. And yeah, it sort of feels a bit surreal that it's

00:27sort of the first Chichester Slam and that that's kind of

00:30like a moment in history now to be a part of. I mean,

00:34obviously, like it went really well. But I didn't at the

00:38time think that I was going to win. So it was a very lovely

00:41surprise. Looking back, you were clearly doing something

00:45right. Looking back, what do you feel went well? I think

00:49using a bit of humour with the audience. You never go far

00:53wrong with that. And I think we just had, it was a lovely,

00:58lovely audience and lovely crowd, which is always helpful as a

01:03poet to have people that are really engaging with what

01:06you're saying. And yeah, it was really nice event to be a part

01:11of. I'm very grateful to that.

01:12And what does winning it mean to you? Obviously, it's a boost in

01:16confidence, isn't it? Has it made you think of other ways of

01:19performing and other things to do? What's been the change for you

01:23since winning?

01:24I think, for me, it's not so much about winning without sounding

01:28like a massive cliche, but like, it is really about like taking

01:31part. I think the biggest things I take away from any poetry

01:34night is the community. Like, it's lovely to come away with a

01:37little trophy, which is proudly sitting on my shelf. But it's

01:42more about the connections and the people you meet in these

01:45spaces that otherwise, I probably wouldn't have met some of these

01:49people. And that's the main thing that I take away. And through in

01:53terms of like poetry wise, through meeting these people, you

01:56then foster these connections. And then you hear about other

01:58nights and get to go and meet new people through that. And but my

02:03favourite thing is just sitting there and listening to people's

02:06vulnerabilities and people being so open and honest and talking

02:10about things through their poems that just otherwise like a lot of

02:16poets, I think, use poetry as a platform to talk about things

02:19that aren't as commonly spoken about with each other. And it's

02:23that like rawness and vulnerability that opens people up for

02:26connection.

02:26And to what extent do you do that? You talk about the fact of being

02:30queer, you talk about veganism, you talk about injustice.

02:34Yeah, I yeah, I that's exactly what I use my poetry for as well.

02:38And I first got into about a year ago, and the first poem I ever wrote

02:42was about, like being looking back on like being a teenager and being

02:48queer and sort of not feeling comfortable with that and like coming

02:52to terms with my sexuality and like being able to it was really

02:56liberating the first time I ever performed that poem. And like being

03:00able to do it in front of like an audience, and just be so proud of

03:05like who I am and not feel embarrassed about anything. And then you meet so many

03:10people that sort of feel similarly as well. And yeah, yeah, it's just I

03:15literally, I've met so many people as well that said poetry saved their life.

03:19And like, I don't think that that is like, and that is just so true for a lot

03:25of people. And yeah, absolutely.

03:29Well, congratulations on winning. And let me know about future

03:32performances. But well done to you and lovely to meet you.

03:35Thank you very much. Lovely to meet you as well. Thank you.

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